Missing fisherman found clinging to signal buoy off coast of Brazil two days after falling from his boat

‘It’s really an enormous weight of water, there was no way to swim against it’, he says. He has gone back to work the next day

A fisherman in Brazil who had gone missing was found holding on to a signal buoy before he was rescued.

Deivid Soares, 43, had gone missing after venturing into the sea on Sunday in São João da Barra , in northern Fluminense on 25 December, reported G1 news.

He was found by a friend who is also a fisherman.

Mr Soares said that he had fallen off the boat and struggled to find a way to survive.

“For me, the first 10 minutes were the most difficult because I wanted to get to the vessel at all costs. But it’s really an enormous weight of water, there was no way to swim against it”, he was quoted as saying to the outlet.

He found a signal buoy about 8km away from the boat.

He abandoned his clothes that were weighing him down and continued swimming.

“There was swell, wind... I decided to let the waters take me to use less strength and ‘walk’ faster. And it took me about four hours swimming to reach Porto do Açu, on the buoys,” he said.

The fisherman took two days to be found by other fishermen who were looking for him after his family sounded an alarm that he had been missing.

The fishermen found him hanging from the signaling buoy off Porto do Açu.

“Many times I thought I was going to die of cold until help arrived,” he said.

A day after he was rescued he went back to work.

A video recorded by one of his rescuers shows Mr Soares in good spirits and smiling.

“Certainly I had the second opportunity to face life with different eyes and to be a better man”, he said.